Piazza Fontana bombing

The Piazza Fontana bombing occurred at 4:37 PM on 12 December 1969, when the neo-fascist Ordine Nuovo terrorist group bombed the headquarters of the Banco Nazionale dell'Agricoltura in the Piazza Fontana of Milan, killing 17 people and wounding 88. The bombing was the first major terrorist attack of Italy's "Years of Lead", a period of widespread social and political upheaval, especially in northern Italy.

The bombing was carried out by the Padua cell of Ordine Nuovo, with Franco Freda and Giovanni Ventura masterminding the attack. They had assistance from state and supranational apparatuses, and the attack was the first example of the "strategy of tension", in which political violence from both the far-right and far-left was encouraged. ON member Carlo Digilio walked into the bank and left a suitcase containing 7 kilos of TNT underneath a table in the salon; the bank was busy at the time, as it was one of the few banks to still be open at that hour. At 4:37 PM, the bomb exploded, killing 13 outright and injuring 87 others; the last victim died a year later of health issues related to the bombing.

The anarchist circle of Giuseppe Pinelli was initially suspected of being behind the attack, and 80 anarchists were arrested in connection to the attack. Pinelli later died after falling out of the fourth-story window of the police headquarters in Milan, and his death was later ruled to be an accident, although many suspected the police of murdering him. Commissioner Luigi Calabresi, who was in charge of the investigation, was later assassinated for his alleged culpability in Pinelli's death. It would not be until years later that the government discovered that the fascists were behind the attack, as the suitcase used in the bombing was purchased in Ventura's hometown of Padua, and similar types of bombs were found at Ventura's home.